MPs Threaten Mass Resignation Over Musharraf

Pakistan's opposition parties were today scathing of General Pervez Musharraf's plans to give up his military post if he is re-elected president.

The party of the opposition leader, Benazir Bhutto, called the proposal unconstitutional and undemocratic, and threatened a mass resignation of its MPs unless the government took more steps towards national reconciliation.

The tough response came after Gen Musharraf's chief lawyer, Sharifuddin Pirzada, appeared before the supreme court, which is hearing petitions that challenge the general's dual role as head of the army and head of state, and his eligibility for the presidential election.

Mr Pirzada gave the clearest confirmation yet of Gen Musharraf's intention to stay in power.

"If elected for the second term as president, Gen Pervez Musharraf shall relinquish charge of the office of the chief of army staff soon after election, but before taking the oath of office of the president of Pakistan for the next term," Mr Pirzada said.

Gen Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 coup, has seen his popularity slump in recent months after a failed attempt to sack Pakistan's top judge. He has been under pressure from the US, which regards Pakistan as a crucial ally in the "war on terror", to strike a deal with the former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Under such a deal, Gen Musharraf would stay on as a civilian president while Ms Bhutto would have corruption charges against her dropped and be allowed to run for a third terms as prime minister. Ms Bhutto has said she plans to return to Pakistan from eight years of self-imposed exile on October 18.

Mr Pirzada's comments echoed a statement yesterday from Mushahid Hussain, the secretary general of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, who predicted that Gen Musharraf "would take his oath of office as a civilian president before November 15".

Gen Musharraf's current presidential term ends in November and he is expected to seek another five-term year in a vote by all provincial and national lawmakers to be held by October 15.

While a decision by Gen Musharraf to give up his army job has been a demand from the opposition, today's statement by his top lawyer was not received well.

Raza Rabbani, a senior leader in Ms Bhutto's Pakistan People's party (PPP), said a move by the general to seek another term from the current parliament was unacceptable.

"We don't accept it," he said, adding that the current assemblies had no "moral mandate" to elect Gen Musharraf as president.

Opposition parties are demanding that Gen Musharraf seek election from a new batch of MPs after parliamentary elections due by January 2008, rather than from the current assemblies that were elected in flawed polls in 2002.

The party of Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister overthrown in the 1999 coup and blocked last week from returning from exile to Pakistan, reiterated its total opposition to Gen Musharraf.

"He is blackmailing. This is a threat from him. He is saying that first you elect me as the president and then I will quit as the army chief. We reject this conditional offer and reaffirm our resolve that we will force him to quit as the president and the army chief," Zafar Ali Shah, a senior party leader, told the Associated Press.

Mahdi Hassan, a Pakistani political analyst, said Gen Musharraf was yielding, reluctantly, to growing domestic and international pressure to restore full civilian rule.

"Musharraf's real power base is the army, and he does not want to quit as the army chief before getting another five-year term as the president," he said. "Sooner or later he has to do it."

Concern about political turmoil comes as militant attacks on security forces have grown in frequency. Eighteen soldiers were killed on Sunday in North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, just days after 16 commandos were killed in a suicide attack. Militants are still holding about 250 soldiers they captured last month in another border region.